The president of the republic confers decorations
Ljubljana, 10/25/2006 | press release, speech
The President of Slovenia Janez Drnovšek conferred seven decorations today. The Golden Order for Services on Janko Smole, Prof. Dr. Bojan Accett, the Cultural Society of Ivan Trink, the Order for Services on Tatjana Leskoek Denišlič, MSc, Chief Doctor Janez Vrbošek and Prof. Dr. Zmago Turk, and the Medal for Services on the Slovene Association of Surveyors.
The President of the republic Dr. Janez Drnovšek conferred the Golden Order for Services on Mr. Smole for his work and merits beneficial for the entire Slovene nation, especially in the areas of banking and finance, and for his contribution to the humanitarian campaigns and charity programmes, on Prof. Dr. Bojan Accett for his life opus in the areas of Slovene gerontology, medical geriatrics and interdisciplinary social gerontology, and on the Cultural Society Ivan Trinko for their long fruitful and brave efforts to maintain and develop the Slovene language and culture among the Slovenes living in the Udine Region.
The Orders for Services for an exceptional contribution to the improvement of dental health among the generation of the children and the young were conferred on Ms. Tatjana Leskošek Denlišič, MSc, and Prim. Janez Vrbošek. The same decoration was also conferred on Prof. Dr. Zmago Turk for his contribution to the professional progress in the area of medicine and the strengthening of the pride of rank among the Slovene medical experts.
The President of Slovenia Dr. Janez Drnovšek awarded the Medal for Services to the Slovene Association of Surveyors, namely, for their long-term successful activities and merits for the development of the surveying profession at the occasion of their 55th anniversary of existence and 50th anniversary of their professional newsletter Geodetski vestnik.
After the conferral of the decorations, the President of the republic
Dr. Janez Drnovšek addressed those present in the large hall of the Presidential Palace:
“Dear holders of decoration, dear guests, I was honoured to confer the decorations to our special guests today. These are the people who have contributed a lot to the successful development of the Slovene society and Slovenia itself, in spite of uneasy situations and conditions that stood in your way. Each of you has made a special contribution in his or her field of expertise. You gave more. You did not do it for yourselves but for the others, for Slovenia, for all our citizens. I am convinced that today’s decorations were conferred to the right people, although it is difficult to be absolutely fair when conferring such decorations. But I feel that the choice was correct. Congratulations to all of you once again and thank you for your contribution, your efforts invested in individual areas of expertise so that we can all benefit from them today. Thank you very much.”
Janko Smole thanked the President of the republic Dr. Janez Drnovšek on behalf of all holders of decorations:
“Dear Mr. President, Dr. Janez Drnovšek. I would like to thank you on behalf of all of us who received the decorations today. They really mean a lot to us. They are especially important for the future and for the development of the future work and projects. Thank you again, Mr. President, on behalf of all of us. We work in different areas but we have something in common, namely, that we do our best to work for the people and to improve their lives. But as I am a practical person, I would like to say some words on behalf of our Fund. The Fund is called Franc Rozman Stane, It has been almost eight years since its establishment and Mr. President has been the honourable sponsor twice, which made it much easier for us to work and gather financial support. I would also like to seize the opportunity to ask for your continued silent co-operation which helps our organisation a lot. We are a relatively young organisation - eight years old -, a civilian initiative which today combines all the veterans’ associations, i.e. TIGER, the Association of Slovene Officers, Sever, the disabled and the war-disabled persons, the societies of expatriates, one could say the entire population of veterans. We implement humanitarian and historical projects as we share the same ideology, common denominators and practical work on those projects. I am especially pleased that we have many supporters among us here today. These are Ljubljanska banka and its president Mr. Kramar; Abanka, Mr. Babič; Mr. Pesjak from Faktor banka; SCT; Mercator; the pharmaceutical industry; Mr. Janez Škrabec from RIKO. Special thanks also to the computer company Marand which has provided us with the state-of-the-art computer technology that reduces our costs considerably and makes it possible for us to operate. We are volunteers, we are not paid for what we do and have a moral obligation to continue with our efforts. I would like to conclude by quoting Mr. President, Janez Drnovšek, from his book
Misli o življenju in zavedanju, a very important quote. Mr. Drnovšek wrote: “We feel quite different when we do something good for somebody, we feel complete, as if we also got something for ourselves. What we got was the new perspective on life, the people and ourselves. Thank you Mister President.”